Denis Forman, 95; produced jewels for British television

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Denis Forman, a television executive who served as steward to some of the most ambitious and popular British programs ever made, including “The Jewel in the Crown,” “Brideshead Revisited” and the “7 Up” documentary series, which has revisited the lives of a group of Britons at seven-year intervals, died Sunday in London. He was 95.

His death was announced by a spokesman for ITV, the independent television network that absorbed Forman's former company, Granada Television, years after he retired in 1987.

A charismatic figure who rebelled against the prerogatives of the upper classes into which he was born, Forman considered television a kind of democratizing and equalizing force in society. A news documentary series he helped create, “World in Action,” which was broadcast from 1963 to 1998, featured award-winning investigative journalism, audacious and often adversarial interviews with public figures, and a level of detailed election coverage and analysis considered unprecedented on British television.

He preached against underestimating public taste and took risks that served to prove his point. Financial backers were initially skeptical, for instance, about the potential audience for a miniseries like “The Jewel in the Crown,” an adaptation of Paul Scott's “Raj Quartet,” a set of four novels about the last days of the British colonial rule in India. So shooting began – on location, in India – without a financial backer; Mobil Oil was persuaded to become a prime sponsor only after the first two episodes were completed.

In an interview, Forman once explained the philosophy undergirding his work, saying: “It's very easy to make programs that are bad. It's very easy to make elitist programs that are good but that nobody wants to see. What is hard is to make popular programs that are good.”

In the mid-1950s, Granada Television was licensed by British authorities to compete with the BBC in certain markets. Forman, who was its managing director starting in 1965 and chairman from 1974 to 1987, established an experimental culture that made Granada the swashbuckling independent of the British airwaves.

Its news documentaries became known for tackling issues such as venereal disease, the contraceptive pill and the campaign to decriminalize homosexuality. Series like “Brides- head Revisited” (1981), an adaptation of the Evelyn Waugh novel, and “The Jewel in the Crown” (1984) made Granada hugely successful in overseas markets, especially in the United States, where the programs found a following on public television.

Under Forman, Granada also introduced “Coronation Street,” a soap opera about working-class life that has been broadcast continuously since 1960.

Forman was born on Oct. 13, 1917, in Dumfriesshire, in Scotland, to the Rev. Adam Forman and Flora Forman. He and his parents lived on a country estate that was purchased by his grandfather and shared by many members of his extended family.

In a 1990 memoir, “Son of Adam,” Forman said his early life had made him a confirmed skeptic of the “piety” and “inspissated goodness” he saw represented by his parents.

After attending Cambridge University and working briefly as a trader, Forman was drafted during World War II and served in the North Africa and Italian campaigns. A shrapnel wound required the amputation of his left leg. He was discharged as a lieutenant colonel.

Forman's survivors include his wife, Moni Cameron, and two sons from a previous marriage, which ended in divorce.

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